


A Castle of Sand and Ice

by jadencross



Series: He Sleeps, She Sings, They Listen [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everything is good, Gen, Hallucinations, Sendak attacks him but doesnt get very far, except it's not, heavy use of the elemental forms of the paladins becuase that stuff is my shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-14 19:45:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9199790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadencross/pseuds/jadencross
Summary: Hunk is having a bad time. He might have accidentally attracted the attention of a Galra fleet. And he might have accidentally gotten himself trapped on a planet far from where he wants to be when Pidge and Shiro come for him. And he might, just might, have eaten some sort of hallucinogen on accident.Either way, Hunk just really wants to go home. And home means sandcastles with his best friend on his favorite beach.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to my other fic, He Sleeps in the Sky of Ice. You don't have to have read it, as it's a prequel. This one works fine as a stand-alone.
> 
> For some quick backstory for new readers, this takes place about a month or two after the end of season 1. All the paladins have been scattered throughout the universe. Allura did a one-time magic show to get them all connected enough to form a plan wherein the Blue Lion and castle come find Red, while Black finds Green, then they both got find Yellow. Yellow then follows Blue's train to the castle. [basically each lion can only find one other one from all the way across the galaxy for security.] This happens after Shiro and Pidge meetup, but before they find Hunk. Lance and Allura and Coran were supposed to find Keith, and then Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge would come find them following Lance's trail.
> 
> Hey guys! This is the last fic of the series! So buckle up, because of course it ends with Hunk lol.
> 
> Little forewarning, I have no idea how to make a decent sandcastle but I feel like Hunk would be so good. So excuse the woefully inaccurate castle stuff. 
> 
> No one proofed this, so please excuse the mistakes lol. 
> 
> That being said, let's get this party started.

Hunk wanted to cry. 

His head hurt and his throat was dry and he couldn’t feel his arms. He sat inside Yellow’s cockpit, curled up in the corner with his back against the cool metal wall.

He knew he shouldn’t have tried that tuber. He didn’t have the scanner that he usually used when searching for food on the different planets. No, that was back in the Castle of Lions, and he was definitely  _ not _ . It was just his luck that the first thing he tried was potentially poisonous.

He tightened his arms around his legs, feeling the shivering increase. He wasn’t cold, but his vision was definitely beginning to blur. He trusted Yellow to keep him safe, but he was worried. 

What if he died here? What if he died before Shiro and Pidge came, and he never got to see them or Lance or Keith or Shay or Allura or Coran again? What if he never got to go home to Hawaii, to see his family and eat all those foods that reminded him of his home? What if he never got to go back to see his mom, or his sister, or his dad, or any of his old friends? What if he died here, alone on a planet so far away it didn’t even fit on the same map as Earth, from a stupid tuber?

Hunk closed his eyes, trying to hold back the tears. If he really  _ was _ sick, then he needed all the water he could get. 

_ Water.  _

As waves of dizziness crashed against him, they reminded him of the ocean. The constant back and forth, the sound of waves crashing against the sand and into itself, the way the sand felt under his feet, the way it felt in his hands as he formed the sandcastle that would surely win prizes had they been in a contest.

“Whoa, Hunk! You’re really good at this!” 

Hunk opened his eyes and had to blink against the sun. He forgot how bright it was back home. 

Back home? No, he was in space. Right?

“I mean, I’m good and all, but this is amazing!” 

Someone was talking to him. Who? He was alone, wasn’t he? He was alone...where was he?

“It’s like a work of art, in all honesty.”

Who was…? 

Hunk turned his head, nausea causing him to move slow, the brightness of the sun forcing him to squint and the person he was sitting with to be blurry beyond all recognition. 

“They should put it in a museum.”

The person paused, and Hunk swallowed. He was really thirsty. Why?

“You okay, Hunk?”

Suddenly a shadow blocked the sun. Hunk blinked, looking up to see the obstruction. 

Lance. 

It was Lance. 

He was building sandcastles with Lance back at home.

“Sorry,” Hunk said, a little confused by how scratchy his voice was. “The sun was really bright.”

Lance looked at him worried for a second before smiling that huge smile that always put Hunk at ease. 

“Really, you should be used to it by now,” Lance teased. “After all, you live in  _ Hawaii  _ and go to school in a  _ desert _ .”

“Yeah, but I got a headache right now,” Hunk responded. Did he? Is that why he felt so confused?

“Do you want to go back to your house?” Lance’s face was concerned again.

“No no.” Hunk put his hands up. He didn’t want to move. Why didn’t he want to move? “It’s fine. Nothing major.”

“If you’re sure…” 

“Yeah man,” Hunk smiled. “I’m sure.”

“Okay then,” Lance smiled right back. “Then let’s build the best sandcastle the universe has ever seen!”

Lance knelt down to be level with Hunk, and started scooping up the sand. Hunk looked down to see an already partially made castle at their feet, only details and more towers needing to be added. 

“I say we build a moat,” Lance said. “All cool castles have moats.”

“Yeah,” Hunk replied, “but it would ruin the stability of the structure. We built the castle to rely on a spread foundation, and putting up a moat might cause it to fall.”

“Who needs stability if you have a moat?”

Hunk sighed. Of course Lance would say that. He’d said it before.

Wait, what?

Before?

“If there’s no moat, then all the invaders can get in.” Lance crossed his arms. “The point of a castle is to protect the king, queen, and princess.”

Hunk rolled his eyes, then winced. It hurt. A lot.

“I’m pretty sure a castle is meant to protect the government and people who live within the walls, Lance.”

“Yeah, and the princess lives within the walls.”

Hunk sighed. “I think the walls are enough to keep out any invaders. Plus, our castle has lots of guards and soldiers in it so there’s no way anyone can get in.”

“The Castle of Lions?”

Another shadow blocked out the sun and Hunk looked up to see Pidge, her white and green armor sparkling in the sun.

“No, Pidge.” Lance rolled his eyes. “Our sandcastle that we’ve been building all morning.”

Wait...Hunk didn’t know Pidge until after he and Lance had gone to the beach. 

After? 

This was the present.

“Go away, Pidge,” Hunk said. “I don’t know you yet. You still have long hair.”

Pidge’s eyebrows dropped and her expression morphed into a combination of worry and confusion. “What?”

“You know, Hunk,” Lance said, completely ignoring Pidge. “If we took some of the sand from Veradero Beach and used it along with this sand, we could make a really cool multi-colored castle.”

“That doesn’t seem practical, Lance.” Hunk turned to his friend. “Why would we do that?”

“So that it could be multi-colored, Hunk. I just said that.”

“Yeah, but what would be the point?”

“Hunk?” 

Another shadow appeared. It was much larger than Pidge’s, and his armor was black. 

Shiro knelt down, his face worried. “Are you okay?”

Hunk’s brain was swirling. 

“No Shiro, you’re not supposed to be here,” he said. “You’re supposed to be dead in space.” 

Shiro’s eyes widened.

“The sand at Veradero is really white, Hunk,” Lance continued, studying the castle. “If we used that, then next to this sand it’d look like ice.”

“Why would that be important?” Hunk was so confused. He wanted Shiro to go away. He wanted Pidge to go away. He just wanted to make sandcastles with his friend.

Lance looked up at him, a bright smile on his lips and blue eyes shining in the sun. “Because your lion’s yellow, which is not too far off from the sand right here, and mine shoots ice.”

Hunk felt like he’d been hit. “We don’t have lions, Lance.”

“I think he’s hallucinating.”

“Did he eat something?”

“Of course we have lions, Hunk.” Lance leaned forward until he was practically on top of Hunk. Hunk tried to lean back but he couldn’t. But there was nothing but open beach behind him. Why couldn’t he move back? “You’re in one now.”

“No I’m not,” Hunk shook his head, which was a bad idea with how much it was already swimming. “I’m at the beach with you.”

Lance shook his head. “This happened years ago, Hunk. Earth is so far away you’ll probably never see it again.” Lance leaned back slightly. “But it’s okay. If you want to stay with me, we can relax in our sandcastle. The sand misses you.”

“Dude,” Hunk pressed himself hard against the thing behind him—wall? “That’s so creepy. Stop.”

“Hunk,” Shiro’s voice was distant. Where had he gone? “Hunk, I think you ate a hallucinogen. You’ll be okay, but you have to wait for the dream to pass.”

“I don’t think he can hear you.”

“Pidge wasn’t even our friend, was she?” Lance’s eyes had become hard and dull. Shadows raced from the edges of the beach, a cloud passing in front of the sun and slowly expanding in the sky. “She never told us who she was.”

“She was researching her family!” Hunk couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. “She was lying to everybody.”

“But we were her teammates, weren’t we?” Lance stood. The sky was turning dark but no sunset appeared. The wind began to pick up, waves crashing against the shore like a storm was coming. “Shouldn’t she have trusted us? We only wanted to be her friends.”

“That’s not fair, Lance.” Hunk tried to swallow. The wind was cold. Slowly, the water level began to rise. 

“Lance, what’s happening?” 

Lance turned away from him, staring over the water. “High tide.”

“It was already high tide. What’s going on?” He felt a hand on his shoulder, but all he could see was the water slowly rising, the sand on the beach anchoring his hands and legs to the ground as it began crawling over his skin. “Lance!”

“As the legs of Voltron, we’re supposed to support the team,” Lance’s voice was cold. “But we can’t do that if you’re always so scared.” 

“Being scared isn’t a bad thing!”

Lance turned and Hunk felt his heart stop. 

Lance’s eyes were pure white. As Hunk watched, Lance’s skin became thick, shifting into fur before turning purple. His eyes slowly became white, and armor began to replace his swimsuit.

“Sendak,” Hunk whispered. He felt the hand on his shoulder squeeze. 

Sendak smiled at him, his metal eye flashing as lightning struck across the dark sky. 

He opened his mouth to speak, but the wind suddenly tripled, causing him to stumble. Fire was launched from somewhere behind Hunk, and it smashed into Sendak’s chest, causing him to cry out. Anger flared in his eyes, and he took a step towards Hunk. 

Hunk still couldn’t move back, but he sorely wished he could. 

Sendak took another step, but he couldn’t move forward. He looked down, seeing seaweed growing from the water to wrap around his legs. Sendak yelled, ripping the seaweed off his legs, but it was a losing battle. More seaweed grew at an alarming rate, slowly growing over her body as the wind buffeted him forward and another fireball hit him in the chest.

Sendak howled in rage, before locking his eyes on Hunk. He reeled back, before extending his magic left arm towards Hunk.

Hunk flinched, trying to throw up his hands but they connected with something in front of him he couldn’t see. Hunk watched in terror as Sendak’s fist steadily got closer and closer. 

Suddenly, the water in front of Hunk lurched upwards, forming a wall between the two before solidifying into ice. Sendak’s fist smashed into it, and a few cracks appeared, but it stood firm. The wind and fire picked up their pace, beginning to absolutely destroy the armor that protected Sendak. 

The sand at Hunk’s feet suddenly exploded. It rushed up on his sides that weren’t protected by the ice and formed a solid wall that would protect him. The sand shifted forward, filing in the cracks in the icy wall. In turn, the water began to sift into the sand, fortifying it before freezing and making it even stronger.

Hunk watched in awe. 

He was safe. 

Through the icy wall, he saw Sendak fall, a final fireball hitting him in the chest and toppling him over. He could see Sendak screaming, but the seaweed dragged him down and the water began to carry him out to sea. 

Hunk looked around, admiring the walls of his fortress as they glittered in the growing sunlight.

_ Sand and ice.  _

Hunk felt his eyes watering. Shiro appeared before him, crouched down, his hands on Hunk’s shoulders squeezing. Behind him, Pidge watched Hunk with concern in her eyes. 

“I miss you guys,” Hunk said, tears beginning to fall. “I miss you guys so much.”

“You don’t have to, Hunk.” Shiro smiled. “We’re right here. We’re real.”

Hunk brought a hand up to wipe the tears from his face, the glimmering sea slowly fading to the inside of the Yellow Lion.

“I want everyone to be together again,” Hunk said. 

“We can be.” Pidge was crouching next to Shiro now. She smiled. “Now that we’ve found you, we can follow Lance’s trail to the others. Hopefully they’re all already together.”

Hunk swallowed, trying to calm his swimming vision. “I think they’ve been met up for a while,” he said, his voice thick. Maybe he just needed to sleep it off. “Lance hasn’t moved for weeks.”

“Then we’ll be able to find them quickly.” Shiro’s voice was soft. “Are you okay?”

“I think...I think I need to take a nap,” Hunk said, his eyes heavy.

“Go ahead,” Shiro said. “We’ll keep watch. When you wake up, we’ll go find everyone else.”

Hunk nodded, already feeling his consciousness drifting off. As Shiro gently laid him down on the cool metal, Hunk smiled.

He was finally going to see his friends again.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh if only he knew.
> 
> So sorry that this was so all over the place, but I was kinda trying to go for one of those dreamlike states where nothing makes sense and it jumps around, yet still points out everything you're worried about in one go. I set these prequels so they end just before He Sleeps starts. Well, except They Listen. But that's whatever lol.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for commenting and leaving kudos and reading! Tomorrow I'll post the last chapter of He Sleeps, and then this series is officially finished! (And I can move on to the 30 other Ideas I came up with this week lol)
> 
> See you soon!


End file.
